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Boonen burst seals world road gold
MADRID, Spain -- Belgium's Tom Boonen unleashed a devastating late sprint to claim cycling's world road race championship in Madrid on Sunday. His late burst relegated home hope Alejandro Valverde to a second world championship silver with France's Anthony Geslin taking bronze. It capped a remarkable year for the talented Boonen, who won the Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders classics and two stages in the Tour de France. The 24-year-old's victory had looked unlikely until the very closing stages of the marathon 273-km test around the streets of the Spanish capital. A six-strong breakaway, including Olympic champion Paolo Bettini and Kazakhstan star Alexandre Vinokourov, had pulled clear of the main peloton on the last lap. Vinokourov, winner of the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic, looked particularly dangerous, then joined by Bettini and Dutch pair Michael Boogerd and Karsten Kroon as they prepared to round the final bend of the race. Momentary hesitationBut a momentary hesitation allowed the peloton to close, although in the ensuing chaos the Italian and Australian teams of race favorites Alessandro Petacchi and Robbie McEwen were caught napping. In the final dash for the line it was Valverde who showed up first. But the talented Spaniard, who won silver in Hamilton in 2003, had no answer once the 1.92 meters tall Boonen hit the front, the Belgian ace raising his arms in triumph before the finish line. "On the last lap it was very important that several members of the Belgium team were always up at the front," said Boonen. "They worked very hard to catch up on the leaders and set me up perfectly. "Alejandro started to go for the line about 300 meters out and I just kept on his wheel and eventually managed to get past him." Boonen, who in Belgium has such superstar status that he now lives in Monaco like many other top athletes, succeeds Spain's Oscar Freire as the world champion. He is the first Belgian to win the world road race crown since Johan Museeuw, in 1996. Freire, a three-time world road race champion, did not race due to injury. 
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